In automotive applications, telematics refers to a system that combines global positioning system (GPS) tracking and other wireless communications for providing services to various entities. For example, roadside assistance and remote diagnostics are two of the services that may be provided through telematics.
Traditionally, in an automotive telematics application, data from a vehicle is uploaded to a tracking system in response to some trigger, such as a time- or event-based mechanism. However, management of the uploaded data can be difficult when large amounts of data are being provided in response to high-volume traveled areas. Additionally, there is significant potential for redundancy of the data uploaded, such as when multiple vehicles in the same geographic area all send the same data to the tracking system. Further, other vehicle-to-infrastructure communications applications, such as dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), can be very expensive to implement as they utilize a great deal of hardware and network components as part of a complex network infrastructure.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a more efficient means to acquire data from vehicles for providing these services.